Theognis of Megara was a Greek lyric poet, active in approximately the sixth century BC. The work is quite typical of the time, featuring ethical maxims and practical advice about life, while the entire corpus of his work (almost 1400 lines known as the Elegies) is valued today for its ‘warts and all’ portrayal of aristocratic life in archaic Greece.

The themes of the work include advice on choosing friends, behaviour in public, keeping promises, where you should place your trust, the importance of husbanding resources, and the evils of poverty. If the text reflects lived experience, Theognis would seem to have lost his estate due to the duplicity of his friends who worked hand-in-hand with city administrators, while a considerable portion of the text also relates Theognis’ often doomed love affairs with young men, and his subsequent preoccupation with ageing.

Reading the collected Elegies, what is striking to note is a motif of increasing civil strife, corruption and a growing threat from overseas to the polis, which would seem to have manifested in eventual invasion and the complete overthrow of the city state where Theognis resided.

Check out the chronological extracts below to trace the increasing anxiety evidence in the theme of a state falling into moral and civil disorder.